ASU event focuses on Africa

Former ambassador to share insight

Gribbin helped Rwanda in its rebuilding efforts following its genocide.

SAN ANGELO, Texas - Robert E. Gribbin was stateside maybe a month following a three-year stint in the Central African Republic before being beckoned back to the continent in 1995.

The former U.S. ambassador was thrust into his second Rwandan tour barely one year ensuing a genocide that claimed the lives of an estimated 1 million Africans.

Gribbin will talk about his experiences in Africa and the challenges the continent faces as the featured speaker of the E. James Holland-Ray A. Harrell Jr. Foreign Affairs Speaker Program at Angelo State University next week.

Stationed in Uganda earlier in his foreign service career, Gribbin had met a number of exiles who went on to become leaders of the new Rwandan government.

“I had been there before, so it was not like I wasn’t familiar with what had been going on.”

Not much time was wasted on introductions on his second go-round. Day two on the job he was exposed to the gruesome reality of the Rwandan genocide.

“Right away we knew the dimensions of the tragedy,” he said. “It was a church where people had been sequestered, raped — systematically slaughtered. Decomposed human remains scattered around.”

Approximately 800,000 Tutsi men, women and children were killed by the majority Hutu ethnic group in a matter of months. Those in opposition to the extremist Hutu plot to annihilate the Tutsis met the same fate.

“It was not unusual to find somebody who was almost the sole surviving member of a Tutsi family. They would tell you that 45 members of their family were killed,” Gribbin said.

He stayed in Rwanda until January 1999 aiding the rebuilding efforts.

Eventually the country began to function — schools and courts began to work, displaced refugees began to get re-acclimated with the country.

“The economy wasn’t as bad as you’d imagine. Everything happened so fast — (the genocide) took place during one-crop growing season,” Gribbin said.

“It was an emotionally tense time, but an interesting time nonetheless.”

The Tuscaloosa, Ala., native retired from full-time diplomatic service shortly following his stay in Rwanda. He took short-term assignments as chargé d’affaires (a French term for diplomatic position) in Nigeria, Burundi, Djibouti, Chad, and Mauritius thereafter. Stretches in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, and Liberia also graced his post-retirement résumé.

“There is a certain in and out attached to the career,” Gribbin said. “Most of us prefer the overseas part because that’s what we signed up for.”

He first became acquainted with Africa as a church missionary in Tanzania. A rural Kenyan Peace Corps venture in between college degrees only furthered his interests.

“It’s hard to draw generalizations about Africa because each country is so different,” he said. “Most Americans don’t track events outside of the U.S. very much besides things that affect the U.S. A lot of things about Africa are misconceptions.”

Robert Nalbandov, ASU assistant professor of political science, said the U.S. has witnessed growing tension in Africa in the 21st century.

“Africa has become a hotbed for international terrorism, such as in Somalia, and political insecurity — a prevalent phenomenon in North Africa,” he said.

“We, as a country that has taken up responsibility to uphold democracy and the freedom of human rights, feel the international obligation to help.”

Involvement in the Middle East unfortunately has left Africa out of our national scope, Nalbandov said. “I am extremely concerned with the human strife and poor economic conditions the majority of those countries face,” he said. “Some are extremely rich, but suffer from a resource curse.”

Despite the turmoil in Africa, Gribbin doesn’t regret the past 45 years he spent off and on the continent.

“I thought about going to places like Ireland and Australia, but I always ended up in Africa,” he said. “I have no regrets, I’ve always found interesting things there.”